Externally accessed storage compartments are a common feature in trailers, trucks, busses, motor homes and recreational vehicles. Storage compartments, cargo areas, lockers and “stowage” are typically accessed from the exterior of the vehicles by doors, mounted on the outside surface of the vehicle. To provide for easier access to these interior storage compartments; drawers, trays and bins have been utilized. An example of a storage drawer is found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,328,365, to Adsit, which discloses an assembly for two drawers that suspend from a common pair of rails within a truck. The drawers are accessible from opposite sides of the truck. A disadvantage of this assembly is that the drawers, when fully extended from the truck, are only supported by a tip end of their slides. If the drawers contain heavy objects, the drawers will tend to tip down, breaking off and away from the rails.
An example of a “slide out” tray or deck is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,869,092 to Henn, which discloses a deck that is slideably movable from a retracted position beneath a vehicle to an extended position at only one side of the vehicle. An extendable tray system is needed that provides for extension from both sides of a vehicle, the tray having the same height on both vehicle sides.
The present invention addresses the failings of prior vehicle drawer mechanisms, and can be understood by reference to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.